Heart of the Nebula

by Joe Vasicek

  “This is highly irregular,” Jarvis grumbled, so taken aback that she was unable to come up with a better retort. “I just hope you know what you’re doing, Lieutenant.”

  “Noted. Burning engines in three, two, one…”

  A rumbling noise sounded through the bulkheads, and the floor began to shake. Sara pulled down a chair and sat down, strapping herself in. Outside the forward window, the station began to move.

  Get us out of here, James, Sara thought, her heart pounding. Take us home.

  * * * * *

  James gripped the flight stick in his sweaty hands and throttled the engines to fifty percent. The luxury yacht wasn’t built for combat by any means, but its sublight thrusters still had quite a kick. Even through the gravitic dampers, he could feel the pull as they accelerated into space.

  The curved hull of the station passed over them, slowly at first, but quickly picking up speed. He nosed the ship up, hugging the exterior as closely as he could. If the Hameji had warships waiting for them, he wanted to present as small a target as he possibly could.

  “Sterling, how are we looking?”

  “Jump drives are charged, sir. Shall I set coordinates for a jump?”

  “Yes. Send us just outside the system orbital plane, distance no less than… fifty light-hours.” It took a second to make a rough guesstimate of their jump capabilities in his head. He trusted, though, that Sterling could fine-tune the particulars.

  “Right, sir. Shall we head for galactic north or south?”

  “It doesn’t matter, so long as it’s away from here.”

  Outside, a soundless flash made Sara yelp. It was an explosion—the Hameji were already shooting, probably at every ship trying to flee the station.

  “Sterling, how are we doing on those coordinates?”

  “Just a sec,” said Sterling, his voice shaky and nervous. “The nav-computer is having trouble loading the astrogation data. It’ll take a while before—”

  “How long?”

  “I don’t know. Half a minute, maybe?”

  James swore under his breath. They had almost reached the end of the station, with nowhere safe to go once they were past it. Since the Freedom Star was a civilian ship, it had no armor or shielding—one good hit was all it would take to kill them.

  As if in confirmation, one of the other fleeing ships broke apart almost directly in their path. He pulled up hard, swerving wildly to avoid the debris. Sara cried out and Sterling gasped for breath, but they avoided the wreckage by the narrowest of margins.

  “What the hell are you doing with my ship?” Jarvis demanded. “Keep flying like that, and you’re liable to get us all killed!”

  We’re liable to get shot if we don’t, James thought angrily. He kept the sentiment to himself, though—this was no time for an argument.

  “Sir,” Sterling yelled. “We have a drone swarm incoming!”

  “What direction?”

  “Sixty—no, ninety degrees bearing, uh—”

  A horrible grating sound, like knives over porcelain, cut him off. The bulkheads shook with the sound of debris pattering against the hull. Outside, half a dozen tiny dark vessels flew past the window, their engines glowing blue.

  “Hang on,” James shouted. Without stopping to think, he nosed the Freedom Star down toward the planet and fired the engines at full throttle.

  “Are you crazy?” Sara shouted from behind him. “We’ll burn up in the atmosphere!”

  The radar display on the secondary screen showed the drone swarm spreading out in preparations to converge on them again. Several warning lights were flashing on the main screen—damage reports, no doubt. Without any sort of armored plating, the Freedom Star wouldn’t last long against another assault.

  James threw the ship into a barrel roll, hoping to throw off the drones’ targeting sensors. The dampers weren’t calibrated for rotational momentum, and the maneuver knocked the wind out of all of them. Alarms sounded throughout the bridge, but he ignored them and pushed on.

  “Stop!” Jarvis screamed. “You’re going to kill us all!”

  “Almost there,” said Sterling. Sweat dribbled down the sides of his face and fell back to splatter against the rear of the cabin.

  On the sensor display, the drone swarm began to converge. James nosed up hard, fighting the urge to pass out, then spun in a new direction and brought the ship down again. His vision turned red as the blood rushed to his face. Sara let out an ear-piercing scream, but the maneuver threw off the drones, at least for a moment. They had new troubles, though: re-entry flames were already beginning to dance across the forward window.

  The crater-pocked wasteland of the slagged planet loomed dangerously close. The shattered ruins of a planetary dome stabbed upward like the ribcage of a dead animal, while dark gray lava flows weaved in and out of the craggy mountains. A vast sea of rust-red sand dunes repeated the same wavy patterns across the devastated planetscape. Their colors mingled with the orange flames as the Freedom Star plummeted toward the surface.

  “We’re going to die!” Sara screamed. “We’re all going to die!”

  A half-dozen alarms sounded all across the ship, and the cabin lights flashed red.

  “Now, Captain! Now!”

  James threw the switch to initiate jump. The familiar nausea swept through his body, filling his mouth with the taste of bile. Relief washed over him as the view outside the window flashed into the familiar glow of the stars.

  Chapter 9

  Sara sighed in relief as the alarms in the cabin died down one by one. The rust-red desert planetscape, which only moments ago had loomed so close, was now replaced by the soft, milky glow of countless stars.

  She tried to stand up, but her legs gave out and she fell to the floor. James knelt down to help her.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah,” she said, cheeks turning red. “I’m fine.”

  “We’re okay,” he said, helping her up. “We made it out—we’re alive.”

  “That might be true,” said Captain Jarvis, “but that little stunt you pulled nearly wrecked my ship. With the damage we’ve sustained, I’ll be surprised if we make it back in one piece.”

  “Not a problem,” said Sterling. “I’ll get on it right away.”

  “Speaking of making it back,” James said, “where the hell are we?”

  “Triangulating position now,” said Sterling, glancing back at his computer display. “Looks like we’re exactly sixty light-hours above the orbital plane. We’re safe, at least for now.”

  Sixty light-hours, Sara repeated to herself, her head still spinning. In an instant, they’d traveled so far it would take the Hameji fleet at Gaia Nova almost two days to determine where they’d gone.

  “We’re not out of this yet,” said James. “It won’t take them long to scramble a flight group to chase us. In an hour, this whole region of space is going to be peppered with jump beacons.”

  “But we’re not a military target,” said Captain Jarvis. “As horrible as it was, the massacre was meant to send a message. They might let us slip by just get that message get out.”

  “Perhaps, but do you really want to risk our lives on it?”

  “We won’t have to,” said Sterling. “We still have nearly half charge on the second jump drive. Give it a couple of hours, and we’ll be more than a light-year away.”

  “Blessed Earth,” James exclaimed, the relief evident on his face. “That’s the last thing they’ll be expecting, too. All right, let’s set the coordinates.”

  As the three of them went to work, Sara palmed open the door and slipped out. They were safe—that was all she needed to know. Better to make herself scarce now, before—

  “Not so fast,” said James, following her out. He laid a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. She caught her breath and turned around to face him.

  “What is it, Lieutenant?”

  “That man you were with back at the station—the one who escorted you to the airlock and disappear
ed. Who is he?”

  Sara’s palms went clammy. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Oh, I think you do. When the Hameji attacked, Lars and the rest of the delegates were on board the Freedom Star—and yet, you weren’t. In fact, you left the ship without telling anyone where you were going. Why?”

  He’s not going to let me get out of this, Sara realized. She glanced over her shoulder—the only way this could get worse was if Lars got involved. She had to contain this as quickly as possible.

  “Can we talk about this in my quarters? I’d prefer to keep this off the record.”

  “I can’t promise that. And if we’re going to take this anywhere, it’ll be my quarters.”

  “But you’re holding the stowaway there,” she pointed out.

  James’s cheeks reddened. “Fine. But don’t try anything funny.”

  As they walked toward Sara’s quarters, Nina’s voice chimed through the jewel in her ear. “Mistress, you appear to be upset,” the AI said. “Is there any way I can be of help?”

  “No,” Sara muttered. James gave her a quizzical look, but she ignored it and palmed open the door.

  The messy state of the room instantly made her regret her choice of meeting place. It wasn’t too bad, but several clothes were strewn across the bed, including a couple of pairs of underwear. Now it was her time to blush.

  “Sorry about that,” she said, stuffing the clothes out of sight. James stood and watched by the door. Thankfully, it hissed shut before anyone else walked in.

  “Now, let’s get to talking,” said James. “What exactly were you doing back there on the station?”

  Sara paused to consider her words. She took a deep breath and resisted the urge to shoot back a snarky response.

  “I had a meeting with… a friend. It wasn’t very important, and the delegation hadn’t yet gotten to business, so I didn’t think there would be any harm in running off on my own.”

  James folded his arms and gave her a look that said he wasn’t buying it. “Oh, sure. And your ‘friend’ somehow managed to sneak you into the spaceport terminal, even with the Hameji swarming all over the place?”

  “Yes, he did.”

  “What’s his name? What exactly is the nature of your relationship?”

  “It’s none of your business,” she said flatly.

  “Frankly, I think it is.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “I risked my life to save you, Sara,” he said. “Don’t you think I deserve to know why?”

  “Performing your duty doesn’t entitle you to special treatment.”

  “And what would you know of my duty?”

  She folded her arms and looked him squarely in the eye. “You’re not the only one who puts their life on the line. I may not carry a weapon or fly a fancy gunboat, Lieutenant, but I am just as ready to die as you are.”

  Her words took him aback, but only for a moment. His eyes narrowed as he returned her glare.

  “If you’re so patriotic, then what are you hiding from me?”

  “I’m not at liberty to tell you.”

  “Do you want me to launch a formal investigation into your activities? Because if it’s necessary, I will.”

  Dammit, James! she wanted to scream. Instead, she drew a sharp breath and sat down on the bed, her hands shaking. For the sake of her mission, she absolutely could not allow him to do that.

  “All right,” she said. “You caught me. I was hoping to smuggle some contraband goods out of Gaia Nova—just some petty goods, I swear.”

  “Is that all?”

  “Yes.”

  James’s eyes narrowed. “I think you’re lying.”

  “Okay, so some of the contraband is a bit more serious, but—”

  “No, I think the smuggling story is a cover. Lars told me your father was sending you as his personal envoy in some kind of political scheme. Tell me about that.”

  Sara’s legs went numb, but she took a deep breath and did her best to feign ignorance.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Don’t try to play me, Sara.”

  He’s not going to let me go until I tell him everything, she realized with dismay. And even then, that might not be enough.

  “All right, all right,” she said, her heart pounding. “I’ll tell you, but this conversation is strictly off-the-record. You have to promise me that you won’t share this with anyone.”

  “No promises. I’ll decide who and who not to tell after I hear it.”

  I was afraid you’d say that, she thought to herself. Since there was nothing she could do about it, she sighed and pressed on.

  “First of all, I want to make it clear that this has nothing to do with my or my father’s political career. It has everything to do with providing for the security and welfare of the Colony.”

  “Oh, yeah?” said James.

  She ignored him and continued.

  “For the past few years, my father’s advisors have closely watched the economic situation in the Karduna system. The outlook is extremely grim. Without the agricultural base at K-4, there simply isn’t enough food production to sustain us. Piracy is on the rise, and the deteriorating security situation has made it impossible to rebuild. Unless something significant changes in the next six months, a complete collapse is inevitable.”

  “So?”

  “So the only way to prevent that is to change things. And the only way to do that is to reach out to help beyond the Karduna system.”

  “You’re not telling me anything new,” said James. “Who are you involved with? What’s going on?”

  “It’s… complicated.”

  “Complicated enough to establish a centralist dictatorship? Consolidate power until the General Assembly becomes irrelevant?”

  “Don’t be an ass. My father could never do that even if he wanted to.”

  “So what does he want to do, then?”

  Sara glanced over her shoulder, more out of reflex than anything else. “Listen, you’ve really got to promise—”

  “Just tell me.”

  “All right. Fine.” She sighed. “It’s an exodus.”

  James frowned. “What?”

  “My father is planning for a mass exodus from the Karduna system. The Colony won’t last much longer under the occupation, so we’re going to leave Hameji-controlled space and strike out on our own.”

  “But that’s crazy,” he exclaimed. “Even if every ship at the Colony was equipped with a jump drive, there simply wouldn't be enough to carry every man, woman, and—”

  “And the Hameji would put a stop to it the moment they found out what we were up to. That’s not how we plan to do it.”

  “Then how?”

  “By jumping out the station itself.”

  James’s expression changed from puzzlement to incredulity. “Jump the whole station? That’s impossible.”

  “Not at all. The infrastructure is already in place: all we need is to—”

  “What do you mean, ‘the infrastructure is already in place’? If that’s true, how come nobody but the patrician knows about it?”

  Sara took a deep breath. “Do you know the War of Independence that we fought against the Gaians almost a hundred years ago? How we joined forces with the rest of Karduna to free our system from the Imperials?”

  “Of course. Every grade school student knows about that.”

  “Well, that’s when the infrastructure was built. Our grandparents, fearing an Imperial victory in the war, secretly installed a massive jump drive on the Colony itself. It’s a capital ship model, built for warships at least as large as our station. When the Imperials backed down and gave us our independence, they decided to keep the jump drive in place. It’s been with us ever since.”

  James’s eyes narrowed. “So you’re telling me that all this time, the patrician has kept this knowledge secret?”

  “Surely you understand the importance of military secrets. If everyone
knew about it, then our enemies could find out and take measures to prevent us from using it.”

  “And if we used it without first putting it to a vote, it would undermine the fabric of our democracy.”

  “Look, I’m not saying it’s right. I’m just saying it’s the way things are.”

  An awkward moment of silence passed. Sara raised her hands as if to show that she was being honest, and James responded with a slow, thoughtful nod.

  “Fair enough, but how does this help us get away from the Hameji? They control everything within a hundred light years of Karduna Prime—we’d have nowhere to go.”

  “In settled space, maybe. Not in unsettled space.”

  “Unsettled space?” he said, frowning again. “What are you talking about?”

  “There’s an uninhabited star system in the middle of the Good Hope Nebula,” she said, leaning forward. “GH-122 is its Gaian catalog number. The ancients called it ‘Chira.’”

  “The goddess of sleep, cryonics, and the subconscious.”

  Sara nodded, impressed. “When did you learn the old pantheon?”

  “It’s a hobby I picked up while running sublight convoys. On the long voyages, it’s hard not to spend a lot of time gazing at the stars.”

  “Right. Well, according to the surveys, there are a number of habitable planets in that system, including a terrestrial world with signs of an oxygen-based atmosphere. We don’t know much about it, since no one has ever sent a scientific expedition, but the basic indicators show that it could support life.”

  “Except for one thing,” said James. “The Good Hope Nebula is too dense for us to travel through safely.”

  “With FTL drives, perhaps, but at sublight speeds we should be just fine.”

  “Sublight speeds?”

  “The nebula works both ways,” she explained. “It prevents us from using conventional jump drives, but by that token it also keeps the Hameji out. Once we’re in, they won’t be able to pursue us.”

  “And how do we get in?”

  Sara paused. James was becoming hard for her to read, and she couldn’t tell what he’d do once she told him. Still, she’d revealed too much to stop now.